Title materials embedded within media formats and related applications

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus are described for enabling actionable content by embedding title materials corresponding to digital bearer instruments in digital media.

1 CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED U.S. PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 60/865,983 filed on Nov. 15, 2006,the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference forall purposes.

This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/742,253 filed on Apr. 30, 2007, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

2 COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document may contain materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever. The following notice shall apply to this document:Copyright 2007, Navio Systems Inc.

3 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

3.1 Field of the Invention

The present invention provides systems, methods, and software forembedding and using title materials in digital commerce which representdigital bearer instruments that express at least one right, such asthose produced commercially by Navio Systems Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.

3.2 The Related Art

3.2.1 Overview

Advertising is an important aspect of modern communications, whatevertheir form, especially on the Internet. Many “free” services aresupported by advertising revenue and many businesses locate and selltheir customers through web sites and the advertisements that guidecustomers to them. Initial advertising takes multiple forms, bothelectronic, and otherwise.

One form of Internet web advertising practice involves the placement ofadvertisements on web pages. These advertisements generally includedigital media of various sorts (e.g. static, animated, or movies),occasionally include sounds, and often include associated scripts thatare activated when a user “mouses over” or otherwise indicates interestin the advertisement. The image is often used the enticement for theuser to click on a link to the advertiser's web site; a practice knownas “click through”. When this is not the case, the associated scriptsoftware can perform a similar function, or it can interact with theuser to collect information and send this to the advertiser's systems oract as a conduit to the advertiser's systems for purposes of collectinguser information, expanding on the offer being advertised, accepting apurchase order or for other purposes. Transactional advertisements areadvertisements that permit a user to take advantage of the advertisedoffer when they “click-through”.

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical prior art advertisement on a web page. Thistype of advertisement is a “click-through” that takes the user to theadvertiser's web site, and does not convey any rights. There are anumber of issues that result from this model of Internet webadvertising, many of which interfere with the effectiveness of theadvertising. In general, these issues can include:

-   -   users disabling the required technologies to prevent their        misuse by harmful software programs, incompatibilities between        the digital media and the user's system,    -   the need for the advertiser's web site to be available and        accessible by the user's system (which may be problematic due to        firewalls, content filters or other factors),    -   the user being willing to take the time to act on the        advertisement at the time it is viewed, since there is no easy        way to save such advertisements to be acted on at a later time,        and    -   the user being able to recognize that the encoded offer is the        same as the offer displayed in the advertisement.

Additionally, in situations where the advertisement that is presented ischosen dynamically by advertising placement software, the user may notbe able to return to the same advertisement at a later time, sincereturning to the same web site again may result in a differentadvertisement being displayed.

Another form of Internet advertising involves sending e-mail with offersand links to associated web pages. These offers may include digitalmedia of various sorts, or be limited to simple or formatted text, butusually include URL or a link that can be followed with a web browser toreach the advertiser's web site. This form of advertising has all of theissues described above for web page advertisements except for theability to delay dealing with the advertisement, but with the additionalproblem that criminal use of e-mail for purposes of collecting privateinformation or transmitting harmful software is common, and thus usersare hesitant to follow links sent in e-mail, even when the e-mailpurports to be from known organizations or businesses.

What are needed are technologies that can be used, when combined withtrusted transaction systems such as the Digital Commerce System providedby Navio Systems Inc. to produce a transactional advertising system thatis effective to create and fulfill advertisements that are notcharacterized by at least some of these issues. Such technologies aredescribed in the following sections.

3.2.2 Title Materials

A title is a digital bearer instrument that expresses at least oneright. A digital bearer instrument is a digital representation of abearer instrument, e.g. one that can be redeemed by the bearer withoutrequiring further identification, authentication, or proof of ownership.Digital bearer instruments were originally developed for use withdigital cash and related cash-transaction technologies. Titles employedby specific embodiments of the present invention are related to thetitle technologies provided by Navio Systems Inc. of Cupertino Calif.Title materials include titles, portions of titles, for example, such asa specific right definition, a reference to a specific title or right,and independently validatable portions of titles. A stub is one exampleof an independently validatable portion of a title. Title materials, asused herein, may also include specific instances of digital bearerinstruments that may not include a specific right. Titles are presentedto title-enabled processes, computers, and devices, which use apresented title to operate on and/or facilitate redemption of rightsexpressed by such title.

3.2.3 Title Processing Arrangements

Title technology, including various title processing arrangements, isdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/742,253, filed Apr. 30,2007, titled “Enhanced Title Processing Arrangement,” and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/439,629, filed May 15, 2003, titled “Methods andApparatus for Title Protocol, Authentication, and Sharing,” the entiredisclosures of both of which are incorporated herein by reference forall purposes. Such arrangements are effective for processing titlematerials.

3.2.4 Well-Known Media Formats

Media formats are formal or de facto standards for the digitalrepresentation of still or moving images, graphics, photographs,drawings, text, sound or combinations of any or all of these. In somecases, provision for associated copyright, display/replay control, userestriction, and other data related to the media data is incorporatedinto the format design. The digital representation may be stored usingmethods which preserve the integrity of the original media data, ormethods which degrade the media data in various ways, such as loss ofcolor accuracy, loss of resolution, loss of original renderinginformation, or others, for various purposes, such as reducing storagerequirements, speeding display, or for aesthetic effect.

Some media format designs include provision for extending the formatdesign so as to include new capabilities in ways that do not interferewith use of such formats by software that predates or is otherwisenon-supportive of the format extensions. Such format designs arereferred to herein as “extensible formats”. Some media format designsinclude features which may be used for purposes other than thoseoriginally intended. For example, a format design may include a fieldintended to be used for comments describing the associated mediacontent, but since software that displays the media has no dependency onthe exact content of this field, it can be used to encode otherinformation without interfering with use by software that does notsupport the new information. Such format designs are referred to hereinas “re-purposeable formats”. Some media format designs include featureswhich permit software that supports such formats to identify which partsof the media specify data, and which do not. It is possible in some suchcases to add additional information to such formats, in areas that arenot included in the media data areas and which are therefore ignored bysoftware that supports such formats. Formats with this characteristicare referred to herein as “appendable formats”.

Media format designs use various methods for organizing data. Some ofthe simpler designs start with some fixed descriptive information (a“header”), with the remainder of the data being media data. Some ofthese designs, such as the BMP format, include information in the headerthat indicate the areas of the file that include image data, and mayinclude information that indicates areas for other data, such as colorinformation. Such formats are seldom extensible, but may bere-purposeable or appendable. Other, more complex designs, use a methodknown as “tagging”, where a file includes a series of data blocks, eachof which is organized in the same way, with recognized marker data (a“tag”) being located in a specific part of each data block. Differentblocks may have different sizes and purposes, or varying internalorganizations so long as the required tag can be located. The formatdesign usually does not specify how many blocks a media file cancontain, or the order required (except perhaps for a required first“header” block that identifies the file format used), and software isgenerally written to ignore any blocks tagged with tags the softwaredoes not recognize. Some tagged format designs specify particular tagsthat may be used to extend the capabilities of the format. Others usetags with less restrictive layouts which enable a nearly infinite numberof potential tags to be added.

For historical, technical, and other reasons, there are many mediaformats in common use. Common practice or standards organizations haveassigned particular file name suffixes to these, which can be used byusers and software to gain some idea as to the format design used by afile without having to examine its contents. When files are sent ine-mail or used on web pages, standard MIME (Multimedia Internet MailExtension) descriptions exist for many format designs that are used tospecify the format used by the associated media file. Examples ofstandard media formats include Graphics Interchange Format (GIF),Portable Network Graphics (PNG), JPEG, “MPEG-1, Audio Layer 3” (MP3),“Advanced Audio Coding MPEG-4” (AAC MP4), and “Flash” (SWF).

GIF, version 89a, is a bit-mapped image format widely used on theInternet. Options include “progressive display” in which the renderingexploits interlaced lines, permitting recognizable images to appearbefore the whole file has downloaded; and short animations that exploitmultiple images and control data within a single file. GIF89a is a defacto standard and was developed by CompuServe. It is described athttp://www.w3.org/Graphics/GIF/spec-gif89a.txt.

The PNG specification defines both a datastream and an associated fileformat for a lossless, portable, compressed, raster (bit-mapped) image.PNG is fully streamable with a progressive display option. Indexedcolor, grayscale, and RGB color (referred to as truecolor in thespecification) are supported, with optional transparency (alphachannel). PNG can store data for accurate color matching. The PNG formatwas originally designed as an open standard to replace GIF89a for use onthe Internet, but is not limited to that use. The PNG standard isdescribed in ISO/IEC 15948.

MP3 is a bit stream encoding format for sound, initially designed forefficient distribution of music files of adequate listening quality overmoderate bandwidth connections. It provides a representation of audio inmuch less space than straightforward methods, by using psychoacousticmodels to discard components less audible to human hearing, andrecording the remaining information in an efficient manner. Similarprinciples are used by JPEG, a “lossy” image compression format. Thethree classes of audio compression associated with the MPEG moving imagespecifications are known as Layers I, II, and III, with the latter beingMP3. The standard for MP3 is described in ISO/IEC 11172-3.

Advanced Audio Coding MPEG-4 (AAC MP4) is a perceptual audio encodingformat designed for efficient distribution of sound files over moderatebandwidth connections, but may be used at higher data rates for betterfidelity. A variant of AAC MP4 is AAC MP4 Version 2, which has bothaudio and visual coding. The standard for MP4 is described in ISO/IEC14496-14.

The Flash (SWF) file format was designed to deliver media contentthrough the Internet. SWF is used for on-screen display and supportsfeatures to support this, such as anti-aliasing, rendering using anycolor formats, animation and user interaction methods. SWF was designedto be extended with new features while maintaining compatibility withdisplay software which pre-dates them. SWF files can be delivered over anetwork with limited and unpredictable bandwidth. The files arecompressed to be small and support incremental rendering throughstreaming. The Flash format is a proprietary format developed byMacromedia and currently owned by Adobe Systems, Inc.

While some media formats include features which support reference tocopyright holders, distribution region restrictions, or other kinds ofdigital rights support, these do not include explicit support fordigital bearer instruments, rights as supported by titles, titlefragments or title references, or the ownership transfer andreproduction features needed to enable digital commerce in such digitalformats. What is lacking is a mechanism to make media immediatelypurchasable and to represent rights within a media file.

3.2.5 XML

The eXtensible Markup Language is a specification for a syntax thatallows the creation of markup languages for purposes of describing data.XML is a flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). XML isplaying an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide varietyof data on the Web and elsewhere, and is a recommendation of the WorldWide Web Consortium (W3C) which publishes various descriptions of XMLand supports various working groups that develop the language. XML isinherently extensible to accommodate new kinds of data in media whichuse it.

3.2.6 RSS Feeds

Really Simple Syndication (or, alternatively, Rich Site Summary) (RSS)is a lightweight multipurpose extensible metadata description andsyndication format. RSS is an XML application, conforms to the W3C'sResource Description Framework (RDF) specification and is extensible viaXML. Initially, RSS feeds were intended for distribution of newsheadlines, often collected from various sources and filtered toconcentrate on specific areas of interest, such as stocks, science, orentertainment. The usage has expanded to a great diversity of usesincluding, for example, forum headlines, new auction listings, updatedlistings of houses for sale, complete audio programs, and a number ofother uses. Feeds can be distributed by a single source, or can bedistributed to multiple locations, which further distribute the feeds.Feeds can be viewed online using a site such as my yahoo, or bydownloading feed reading software. Some portable devices have thecapability to accept downloads of RSS feeds for later use withappropriate software. An example of such a device is the Apple i-Pod.The specifications for RSS are located athttp://www.rss-specifications.com/. RSS 2.0 is offered by the BerkmanCenter for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School under the terms ofthe Attribution/Share Alike Creative Commons license.

3.2.7 HTML and XHTML

Hypertext Markup Language, and it's successor, eXtended Hypertext MarkupLanguage, are the languages used to build web pages. A web page is adocument made up according to the rules of HTML or XHTML. Both languagesinclude features that can be used to extend the capabilities of webpages as new technologies are developed. Both are tag-based languages,where a document is composed of text and various “tags” which describewhat the text means (text, links to other pages, URLs of images todisplay, page formatting information such as tables, frames, etc.), howit should be displayed (font, color, location, etc.), the version of thelanguage specification the document complies with, and other relevantinformation.

3.2.8 E-Mail and MIME

Internet e-mail is based on a standard protocol known as Simple MailTransport Protocol (SMTP). SMTP was created to allow exchange oftext-based messages, with basic data such as the sender address,intended recipient address, subject and date/time of the messageincluded in a manner that allowed software to locate and act on it. Thecontent of the body of the message was not specified, though somerestrictions on formatting, such as byte values allowed or maximum linelength, were coded into some software that implemented SMTP.

To allow sending of information other than text in e-mail, a newprotocol was specified for use in e-mail messages: Multimedia InternetMail Extensions (MIME). MIME allows the inclusion of images, sound,graphics, executable programs, scripts, and many other items in mailmessages which can still be sent through a standard SMTP mail system.Data which does not fit the requirements of SMTP is encoded into formsthat are acceptable to SMTP and unencoded once received, with the typeof item the data represents being identified by MIME. MIME types arestandardized, but the standards are extensible since the type names arejust strings of characters. Most MIME-aware software will ignore anyMIME type that is not recognized, which limits problems with oldersoftware when a new MIME type is defined.

MIME has been adopted for use with HTML, and may be used to identify thetype of object referred to by an HTML<object>tag, thus permitting newobjects to be specified as needed in web pages.

3.2.9 Advertising Systems

A number of different advertising methods and systems have beendeveloped as the Internet has grown and gained acceptance by the generalpublic. Some methods involve advertisements placed on web sites owned bythe advertiser, while other methods involve placement on web pagesbelonging to others, with payment for the use of the space being madebased on various factors, such as number of visitors to the site, numberof visitors who “click through” on the advertisement, etc. In somecases, the space may be arranged for by an ad placement company, whichinserts different advertisements, from their various clients, into thespace for different visitors or at different times. In addition to webpage ads, advertisements may also be delivered in RSS feeds, as part ofprogram content in downloaded audio or video programs, or in e-mail. Ine-mail the advertisement may comprise the content of the message, or itmay be inserted into the message or appended to the end. In most cases,any viewer who wants to take advantage of the offer described by theadvertisement must follow a link to the advertiser's web site andinteract with that system. Further details of several currenttechnologies for Internet advertising are covered in the followingparagraphs.

An example advertising service and method is described in Addante.According to Addante, in published patent application US2001/0036182, acontent server receives a request for content from a user computer andresponds by transmitting content pages with space for one or twoadvertisements and a referral command to a direct connect server. Theuser computer follows the referral command and requests an advertisementfrom a direct connect server. The direct connect server receivesadvertising selection criteria and generates and transmits a request foran advertisement to an advertisement selection server. A creativeselection server identifies one or more advertisements and sends thelocation of the advertisements media files to the user computer. Theuser computer then downloads and displays the advertisement media filesto the user.

According to Hamel, in published patent application US2002/0007393, animproved proxy allows click-throughs on an ad URL delivered on a webpage within a Java® applet executing on a client machine. The proxycaches cookie information for the browser, to support Java applicationsthat do not allow for placing of cookies directly. When the user clickson the ad URL, the proxy retrieves the relevant cookie and linkinformation from a host side database, and uses the cookie and linkinformation to help the browser open the correct URL associated with thead. Additional controls are provided for the proxy, including theability to filter ads in an appropriate fashion for the applet, to cacheads from third party servers, to monitor applet behavior, to cache/passon client IP address information, and to perform administrative tasksfor the applet within the browser to enhance and facilitate ad deliverybetween advertisers and their intended audiences. Thus, the proxy actsto extend the reach and access of a conventional applet beyond theresources of a download host associated with such applet. In anotherembodiment, the applet controls a hidden frame within the browser, whichhidden frame, unlike the applet frame, is able to download and plant acookie from an ad server within the browser. When the user clicks on thead URL, the browser uses the cookie from the hidden frame and passes iton to the ad server along with the URL, so that the user experiences aseamless and smooth transfer, as would occur from a conventional HTMLtag within the page.

According to Auxler et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,251, a system andmethod for increasing click-through rates of Internet banneradvertisements is enabled through the delivery of banner ads having auser interactive gaming function. In one embodiment, the userinteractive gaming function is implemented as an Internet scratch-offgame. Further, the gaming on the banner ad is completed by interactionby the user at a merchant web site. A transfer to the merchant's website is accomplished by using a uniform resource locator (URL) requestthat includes game state information. Automatic transfers to a merchantweb site also can be effected based upon indications of user interactionwith an interactive portion of a banner ad.

Current methods of on-line advertising tie together offers, ads, and theadvertiser or offeror's web site. Consumers who wish to take advantageof one or more rights must act on the ad when is it presented to them,be willing and able to interact with the required web site, and mustusually establish an account or other relationship with the offeror.They can not accept the offer anonymously, or save it for a later timeand if the offeror or advertiser's web site is not accessible at thetime, or uses technologies that the consumer does not have or hasrestricted for various reasons, the consumer will not be able to respondto the advertisement.

With the growing prevalence of security hazards on the Internet, manyconsumers are hesitant to interact with unfamiliar web sites or to allowcertain technologies, such as Active-X, which require software to bedownloaded from web sites and run locally, to be used on their systems.Many businesses, ISPs and consumers are using firewall software,security screening proxy servers, browser settings and other forms ofsecurity to restrict what kinds of interaction are allowed outside oftheir own intranets. This can disrupt the functioning of ads which relyon methods that are blocked by such software. Examples of adtechnologies which can be blocked by security software include Active-X,Java, Flash, HTML Object Tags, and JavaScript. Some consumers alsorestrict browser access to data which comes from outside the domain ofthe web page they are viewing, which can prevent viewing of ads whichare linked to from an advertiser's web site.

What is needed is an actionable ad and actionable content that can beacted on independent of the advertiser's or offeror's web site, whichcan be acted on in an anonymous way, or which can be acted on at a latertime. Such capabilities exist in the case of printed coupons, where amanufacturer grants a discount for the purchase of their products toanyone bearing the coupon, and the coupon is redeemable at any storeswhich sell the manufacturer's products, at any time prior to theexpiration of the coupon, but such capability does not currently existfor electronic transactions such as those done over the Internet. Inaddition, the actionable ads and actionable content must be in a formwhich is trusted, and which can be served from web sites the consumertrusts, to limit interference from security software or browsersettings.

Each of the techniques of providing and servicing advertising materialsto users described above are characterized by an inability to securelyprocess an advertisement on behalf of a user and to securely transmitthe results of such processing to a merchant web site. What is needed isa system that enables the secure user verification of offers, securelocal processing of offers, and secure transmission and fulfillment oflocally provided transaction results.

3.2.10 Existing Methods for Recognizing Digital Materials

There is no standard method for recognizing digital materials; however anumber of methods are commonly used in various environments. Somedigital formats include specific sequences of data bytes at particularlocations within the media, others do not. This method is not perfect,since it is possible that these sequences could occur at the samelocation within media which are not of the media type in question. Someformats specify, or commonly have applied, particular suffixes(“filename extensions”) to their containers, such as .GIF, .JPEG, .SWFor .MP3. This can be a clue, but there are generally no restrictionsagainst using these filename extensions for other types of files,enabling users to use them for text files, other types of media files,or even executable programs. It is possible that some operating systemsmight not support the concept of a filename extension, or may use amedia type's extension for some other purpose. Other operating systemsmay use the filename extension to determine which program to executewhen the media container is accessed.

When a program is expecting a particular media file type, such as an MP3player expecting files given to it to be MP3 audio files, or an imagedisplay program is expecting to be given an image file, the problem canoften be dealt with by reading the file and checking for characteristicsof the expected format within it. For instance, checking for a specifiedsequence of bytes at a specified location within the file, or checkingfor “reasonableness” in the data it finds. For instance, if a fileformat specifies a sequence of blocks, each of which has an offset tothe start of the next block, and each block starts with a “tag” fieldwhich is one of a specified set of tags, then reading the file andfinding such tagged blocks linking to each other would lend support tothe file being of the expected type, while offsets that lead tonon-existent bytes, or to blocks with unrecognized tags would indicatethat the file is not of the expected format. This method is useful forverification that a file is of a particular type, but less useful fordetermining what type a file is in general, as each possible type wouldhave to be checked until the file type was identified. When no bettermethod is available, this approach can be used however.

In some cases there may be identifying data supplied external to theparticular digital materials. For example, when digital materials aresent as e-mail “attachments”, the enclosing e-mail message will identifythe enclosure using Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), or aweb page may identify the digital materials using the parameters of an“object tag”.

While watermarking and other mechanisms exist for embedding materialswithin existing content stored in specific media formats, there is nocurrent mechanism to embed offers, proofs of purchase, and other relatedmaterials within these formats. Additionally, there is no mechanism inplace for accessing offers, proofs of purchase, and other relatedmaterials embedded within content stored in specific media formats andfor subsequently exercising the rights represented by these offers,proofs of purchase, and similar items.

4 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for enablingactionable ads and actionable content through the use of title materials(e.g., titles, title fragments, title templates, etc.) embedded indigital media.

According to one class of embodiments, methods and apparatus areprovided for facilitating a transaction involving redemption of a rightrepresented by a digital bearer instrument. Presentation of arepresentation of digital content to a user is facilitated. Therepresentation of digital content is derived from a digital objectcharacterized by a media format. The digital object has title materialsembedded therein corresponding to the digital bearer instrument. Thetitle materials are embedded in the digital object such that processingof the digital object by a process configured to recognize the mediaformat is not inhibited even where the process is unable to recognizethe title materials. The title materials are configured such thatinteraction with the representation of the digital content by the userresults in initiation of the transaction.

According to another class of embodiments, methods and apparatus areprovided for facilitating a transaction involving redemption of a rightrepresented by a digital bearer instrument. Title materialscorresponding to the digital bearer instrument are embedded in a digitalobject characterized by a media format such that processing of thedigital object by a process configured to recognize the media format isnot inhibited even where the process is unable to recognize the titlematerials. The digital object corresponds to digital content and isconfigured to enable presentation of a representation of the digitalcontent. Redemption of the right is facilitated in response tointeraction by a user with the representation of the digital content.

According to yet another class of embodiments, a computer-readablemedium is provided having a digital object stored therein. The digitalobject corresponds to digital content and is configured in accordancewith a media format to enable presentation of a representation of thedigital content. The digital object further has title materials embeddedtherein corresponding to a digital bearer instrument representing aright. The title materials are embedded in the digital object such thatprocessing of the digital object by a process configured to recognizethe media format is not inhibited even where the process is unable torecognize the title materials. The title materials are configured suchthat interaction with the representation of the digital content by auser results in initiation of a transaction involving redemption of theright.

According to various and more specific embodiments, title materials maybe embedded in a digital object in a variety of ways. According to oneapproach, in which the media format is extensible, the title materialsare embedded in an extension to the digital object. According to anotherapproach in which the media format includes a feature characterized by afirst purpose unrelated to the title materials, title materials areembedded in the digital object using the feature. According to yetanother approach in which the media format defines an end of a file, thetitle materials are embedded in the digital object by appending thetitle materials to the end of the file of the digital object.

The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth inthe accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features andadvantages of the invention will be apparent from the description anddrawings, and from the claims.

5 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical prior art advertisement on a web page.

FIG. 2 depicts an extensible format digital media file with a new titlematerials tag type data block.

FIG. 3 depicts a re-purposable format digital media file with are-purposed tag type data block.

FIG. 4 depicts an appendable format digital media file with an appendeddata block.

FIG. 5 depicts an example of a JFIF file format.

FIG. 6 depicts an example of a JFIF file format with a new “TITLE” typeApplication segment added.

FIG. 7 depicts an example of a JFIF file format with a re-purposedcomment segment containing title materials.

FIG. 8 depicts an MP3 tagged media format file with embedded content.

FIG. 9 depicts a digital image with embedded ad content.

FIG. 10 depicts a JFIF file format with an appended data blockcontaining title materials.

FIG. 11 is an example of a flow chart illustrating the process ofredeeming title materials embedded in an ad with the assistance of theAV (or helper) application.

FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram of a network environment in whichembodiments of the invention may be implemented.

6 DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to specific embodiments of theinvention including the best modes contemplated by the inventors forcarrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments areillustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention isdescribed in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will beunderstood that it is not intended to limit the invention to thedescribed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to coveralternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included withinthe spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.In the following description, specific details are set forth in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The presentinvention may be practiced without some or all of these specificdetails. In addition, well known features may not have been described indetail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention.

6.1 Definitions

The following definitions are used throughout, unless specificallyindicated otherwise:

Content structure A data structure used to store content, includingcontent file formats such as JPEG, GIF, MP3, and structured data formatssuch as RSS and HTML. Embedded A software representation that is storedwithin a software container, in such a manner that the softwarerepresentation may be uniquely identified and optionally removed.Encoded within A software representation that is stored within asoftware container, in such a manner that the software representationmay be uniquely identified but it cannot be removed, e.g., a digitalwatermark. Stream A sequence of bits. Stream content A sequence of bitsthat comprise one or more pieces of content. W3C The World Wide WebConsortium.6.2 Overview

An example of a solution that can address the deficiencies in thecurrent systems and methods of providing advertisements is based on theuse of title materials to produce title-enabled advertisements.Advertisements which are composed, at least in part, of digital mediathat contains embedded title materials can be:

-   -   acted upon by a user invoking one or more rights conveyed by use        of those title materials,    -   trusted by said user as to source and the result of invoking        said right(s),    -   provide authenticatable source for referrals    -   provide “save now, use later” functionality while retaining all        of the above functions

Invocation of rights specified by title materials may be done by way ofa Digital Commerce System that the consumer already has a trustedrelationship with, using client software that the consumer already ownsand knows to be safe to use. There is no requirement to follow links tounknown web sites, to provide personal information to unknown parties,to execute unknown offers, or to download and run untested andpotentially harmful software. Transactions can be done anonymously ornon-anonymously as desired. Title materials can be embedded in mostdigital materials, which allows for advertisements to be done by way ofstill images, movies, audio, HTML pages, formatted text, programs, orothers, or any combination of these. The mode of transfer of theadvertisement can be through all standard advertising methods, such asweb site banner ads, web site links, e-mail, file downloads,Peer-to-Peer file sharing, etc.

The use of title materials allows the originator of the advertisement to“sign” their advertisement, so that the advertisement's origin, anyoffers that are part of the title materials, the referring advertisingsite, along with other information and rights, can be known by all. Thisimproves a user's trust that the contents are non-harmful in cases wherethis might be a concern, such as when distributing software as part ofan advertisement. By specifying a right to copy as part of the titlematerials, an advertiser can permit consumers to duplicate theadvertisement, optionally endorse it, and share it with others, thusincreasing the audience size and reach of the advertisement, whileretaining the historical information. Such rights can be limited invarious ways so that the advertiser maintains control over the campaign,which can be important in, for example, cases where the advertisementincludes a right to something of value, such as a free item or couponfor a discount, or where the offer has an expiration date.

An aspect of the use of title materials in these ways is the ability toembed title materials into digital media in such a way that the titlematerials are a part of the digital media and are accessible bytitle-aware software, but do not interfere with normal use of that mediaby software that is not title-aware, such as pre-existing media players,operating system file utilities, etc. Methods for accomplishing this aredescribed in the following sections. These technologies are additionallyadvantageous in that proofs of purchase, offers to convert mediaformats, and similar rights, can be embedded in a piece of digital mediaby encoding these items within title materials, and then encoding thetitle materials within a piece of digital media as described herein.

6.3 Title Encoding and Embedding Methods

6.3.1 Embedded Title Content

In some embodiments, titles are embedded within media files or othercontent structures enabling commerce systems to utilize titles whileremaining compatible with legacy applications. In traditional web-basedapplications, an image (or other content structure) is referenced anddisplayed using a web browser. In some embodiments, the image is servedto the browser from an external server, such as an ad server.

Title materials may be embedded advantageously within standard fileformats so that they are transparently delivered to users along with thecontent encoded using the file format. Alternatively, links to titlematerials may be embedded within standard file formats. Users who arenot using software that recognizes titles, e.g. those that are not“title enabled”, see the “normal” image and can optionally follow thelink to the commerce system; those that are “title enabled” receiveadditional benefits of immediate integration with digital commercesystem applications.

6.3.2 Embedding Titles in Various Types of Digital Media

According to a particular class of embodiments, there are three methodsfor embedding title materials within standard file (media) formats.These are:

-   -   Extend—Extend the format using mechanisms defined by the format.    -   Re-purpose—Fit title materials into the format by using an        existing feature of the format in a different manner than        originally intended.    -   Insert/Append—Insert title materials into, or append title        materials to the end of the file in such a way that unaware        software will ignore it.

Numerous challenges exist to embedding title materials within standardfile formats. These include positioning within the file, sizelimitations, compatibility, and related issues. Positioning of the titlematerials within the digital file formats requires care, and sometimesrearrangement of portions of the media format in order to make the titlematerials easily accessible to title-aware applications (as describedlater). While the title materials can technically be positioned anywherewithin the media, it is advantageous to order the title materials sothey appear either at the front or back of the file. By placing thematerials at the front or back of the file, the title materials arequickly visible to title-aware applications that scan the file lookingfor title materials. In cases where the file is small, this advantage isminimal. In other cases, such as an MPEG-4 encoded movie or even a JPEG,the file could be large enough that searching the whole file formaterials becomes time consuming. The most advantageous positioning ofthe title materials within each file is generally a determination thatmust be made on a case-by-case basis after consideration of the filecontents, the file format, how the file will be used, and the titlematerials that must be embedded. For example, in cases where the file isstreamed to a user, it is nearly always advantageous to position thetitle materials within the first several kilobytes of the file.

Additionally, some of the file formats have limitations on the size ofthe title materials that can be inserted. Complete title objects canbecome large (e.g. >4 kb), and some of the file formats have limitationsin the size of embedded materials. Each file format is different in itslimitations. It becomes important to embed sufficient title materials sothat the recognition process will succeed, but not require completetitles in places where space is limited, whilst still providingsufficient information to permit a title-aware application to recognize,complete any missing portions, and then use the embedded title(materials). Again, the most advantageous sizing of title materialswithin each file is an implementation dependent determination based uponfile format, title, expected use, and other implementation-basedfactors.

One often overlooked aspect of embedding title materials within fileformats, especially when using repurposed and append/insert methods ofembedding title materials, is that of compatibly with existing software.Care must be taken when selecting the embedding method to ensure thatexisting software that uses files with title materials embedded stillfunctions correctly. This is an implementation testing issue, in which asample file with embedded title materials is tested using the softwarein question.

Extensible formats include mechanisms for adding extensions to theformat in ways that do not affect software that is unaware of theseextensions. This may be accomplished, for example, by setting aside arange of tag identifiers for this purpose, by specifying a tagspecifically for the purpose of specifying extension tags, by usingarbitrary length and content tag ID names and specifying thatunrecognized tags be ignored, or by other mechanisms known to thosehaving skill in the art. By using these mechanisms a new “title” datatype may be added to files using such formats, without disruptingunaware software, and permitting easy identification of title data bysoftware, such as Active Viewers (AVs) developed by Navio Systems Inc.of Cupertino, Calif., which are aware of the extension. FIG. 2 depictsan example of such a format. Examples of extensible standard formatsinclude, but are not limited to, JPEG/JPG, GIF, PNG, AVI, SWF (Flash),WAV, AIFF, ASF, XHTML, VCF, RSS, and Open Office files.

Re-purposable formats do not typically include mechanisms for extendingthe format, but do include aspects which can be used for new purposeswithout disrupting software that does not recognize the repurposedsystems. For example, a format may specify a method for includingarbitrary text for purposes of making comments about the files contents.Software that displays the digital content does not depend on anyparticular content in comments, so titles, links to titles or othertitle materials can be placed in the comment fields of such files. Ifthe software displays these comments or text fields in conjunction withthe digital content, a user can manually follow links to externalcommerce systems. AVs or other title-aware components can locate thetitle materials in the comments of such files, while title-unawaresoftware will not be disrupted since it will either ignore the comments,or treat it as arbitrary text data and have no functional dependency onthe content. FIG. 3 depicts an example of such a format. Examples ofstandard formats which are re-purposable include, but are not limitedto: QT (QuickTime), MID (MIDI), OGG, TIFF, DXF, EPS/PS (Postscript),PDF, RTF, MP3, AU, EMF, HTML, ZIP, MS Office files (.doc, .xls, etc)

Still other standard formats do not typically include extensionmechanisms or re-purposable features, but do have formats whichexplicitly specify the portions of the media container that containdata, or which specify a “logical end of file” (where the data part ofthe media ends, whether this is the actual end of the media or not). Byplacing data outside of the specified data areas, or after the logicalend of file, such data will be ignored by unaware software, but can belocated by AVs and other aware software. FIG. 4 depicts an example ofsuch a format. An example of a common format which isinsertable/appendable is BMP (Windows Bitmap). Other formats that areappendable are those that have an end of file marker, such as the ^Zappended to the end of certain text format files. When the processingprogram encounters the ^Z, it stops processing the contents of the file.

6.3.2.1 Embedding in Extensible Formats: JFIF (JPEG)

As stated above, there are a number of file formats which can beextended by the addition of new structures and/or structure typeswithout disrupting the functioning of existing software. The JFIF formatwill be used as an example of how this can be accomplished. Similarmethods can be used on other extensible formats, as those havingordinary skill in the art will readily see.

The format commonly known as “JPG” is more properly referred to as“JPEG”, for the Joint Photographic Experts Group, which is theorganization which created the standard. JPEG refers primarily to thecompression methods and the associated file format is referred to as“JFIF”, for “JPEG File Interchange Format”. JFIF enables JPEG bitstreams to be exchanged between a wide variety of platforms andapplications and is the format most commonly used on the Internet. Thesyntax of a JFIF file conforms to the syntax for interchange formatdefined in Annex B of ISO DIS 10918-1.

As depicted in FIG. 5, the JFIF file format includes a sequence ofmarked segments (5100 through 5500). Each segment includes a byte havinga hexadecimal value of “FF”, followed by a byte specifying the markertype (e.g. hexadecimal value “D8” for Start Of Image (SOI) (5100), “E0”for Application type Zero (APP0) (5200, 5300), or “D9” for End Of Image(EOI) (5500)). Each marker type may be followed by associated data forthat segment, with the existence or format of such data determined bythe type of the marker.

The SOI marker (5100) has no associated data and serves only to mark thebeginning of the image. The SOI segment is followed immediately by anAPP0 segment (5200). APP0 segments contain several data fields, such asa length field and a name field. The name field of an APP0 segment isused to determine which type of Application segment follows, anddifferent types of APP0 segments have different associated data andformats.

The first segment following the SOI segment (5100) of a JFIF file mustbe an APP0 segment having a name string including the letters “JFIF”followed by a byte having all bits set to zero (a “null byte”) (5200).This segment contains data that includes the version of the JFIFspecification the file conforms to, image pixel density and thumbnailimage information.

Following the “JFIF” APP0 segment (5200) is an optional ApplicationExtension segment (5300). This APP0 segment has the name string “JFXX”,followed by a null byte. If present, this segment is used to specifyadditional information about the thumbnail image contained in the “JFIF”segment (5200).

Following the SOI (5100), “JFIF” APP0 segment (5200), and any optional“JFXX” APP0 segment (5300), come various other segment types, such ascomment (COM), additional APP0 segments and the actual image datasegments, represented in the depiction by a Start Of Frame (SOF) segment(5400). The actual image data can include a number of different types ofSOF segments, segments conveying color information, decodinginformation, etc., as described in the JPEG standard referencedpreviously. The final segment is an End Of Image (EOI) segment (5500),which is marked by the hexadecimal “FF” byte that introduces a marker,followed by the hexadecimal “D9” byte signifying an EOI marker.

By creating new APP0 segment names, new types of APP0 segments can becreated to contain new types of data, such as title materials. Asdepicted in FIG. 6, such “Application-Specific” APP0 segments (6400)must follow after the SOI (6100), “JFIF” APP0 (6200) and any optional“JFXX” APP0 segments (6300) and must have name strings which are not“JFIF” or “JFXX”, but which must be followed by a null byte. Other thanthese restrictions, the new APP0 segment names may be whatever string isrequired, though the specification suggests that these be organizationor company names, and not common words, such as “dog” or “cat” to reducethe chance of different implementers choosing the same name for APP0segments having different formats. In one embodiment, an APP0 segmentname of “DBI” is used. The format and data included in a new APP0segment type are up to the implementer, though the APP0 segment lengthfield size will limit total segment size to 65,535 bytes. If more datathan this is required, defining a “continuation” APP0 segment type ispossible, which would allow arbitrarily large amounts of data to beincluded in a JFIF file, with limitations only being imposed by externalfactors, such as file system size or design.

For purposes of embedding title materials into JFIF files, animplementation can define a new APP0 segment type with the name “TITLE”(6400), to indicate that it contains title materials. The data fieldsand format of the associated data for this segment can include, forexample and without limitation, the type of digital materials embedded(title, title stub, title reference, etc.), the name of the titleissuer, a URL that locates the issuer, and the actual title materials.Properly constructed existing software that was not created with theability to work with this new segment type will ignore it. Since thereis no image data included in this segment, omitting it from processingwill have no harmful effect on the image display or manipulation.Software which has been written to work with this new segment type willbe able to locate the digital materials by scanning the file for ahexadecimal byte with the value “FF”, which is followed by a byte withthe value “E0” (APP0 marker), which is followed by two bytes of segmentlength, and then the string “TITLE” followed by a null byte. Suchtitle-aware software can then read the TITLE block and extract the titlematerials from it.

In another implementation separate new APP0 segment types can be definedfor each type of title materials that must be embedded. For example, anAPP0 segment with a name of “TITLE_STUB” can be defined to contain titlestub data, an APP0 segment with a name of “TITLE_LINK” can be defined tocontain a link to other title materials, etc. How many such new APP0segment types are required, and what their names should be will bewithin the understanding and discretion of those having skill in theart.

6.3.2.2 Embedding in Re-Purposable Formats: JFIF and MP3

As previously described, where extending a format is not an option,re-purposing an existing feature might be used. Both the JFIF and theMP3 formats will be used as examples of how this can be accomplished inmore than one media format. Similar methods can be used on otherre-purposable formats, as those having ordinary skill in the art willreadily see.

The JFIF format, as previously described and depicted in FIG. 5, is madeup of marked segments of data (5100 through 5500). One such segment typeis the COM, or “comment” segment. This segment was included in the dataformat design to allow incorporation of arbitrary text into the imagedata for the purpose of describing the image, noting the ownership ofthe image, or for any other purpose. In a first embodiment, the titlematerial's data is encoded into text form, using methods well known tothose having skill in the art, such as specifying some or all data bytesas hexadecimal values in the form of ASCII strings, and included as animage comment segment, as shown in FIG. 7.

In FIG. 7 the SOI segment (7100), APP0-JFIF segment (7200), and anyoptional APP0-JFXX segment (7300) are followed by a COM segment (7400)containing the encoded title material(s). This is followed by the imagedata (7500) and EOI segments (7600). Software which is not title awarewill not be prevented from displaying the image, since image displaydoes not involve use of comment segments. Some editing software maydisplay comment segments, but such software will not rely on thespecific content of such blocks and will treat them as arbitrary textand so will not be adversely affected by inclusion of title materials inthis manner. Software which is created to be title-aware, such as AVs,will locate the comment segment, un-encode the digital title materialdata into the original binary representation, and validate or otherwisework with the digital title materials as required.

The MP3 file format specification describes a record-based storageapproach, in which a header, one or more attribute records, and contentrecords are defined. For example, the ID3v2 specification defines aplurality of application-readable fields that may be used to encode atitle or a title reference within an MP3-encoded file. In an MP3-encodedfile, ID3v2 tags are encoded as a set of frames. MP3 players ignoreID3v2 tags that they are not able to understand. Each frame is uniquelyidentified by a code that describes its content.

In a first embodiment, a link to a title may be encoded within aURL-link frame. The ID3v2 specification identifies two types of ID3v2frames that may be used preferably to store titles or title references.As described in the ID3v2 specification:

WCM—The ‘Commercial information’ frame is a URL pointing at a web pagewith information such as where the album can be bought. There may bemore than one “WCM” frame in a tag.

WPB—The ‘Publishers official webpage ’ frame is a URL pointing at theofficial web page for the publisher.

For example, a URL link frame of WCM is reserved for a URL thatreferences “commercial information” about an MP3. The URL may referencea specific title that describes rights for the MP3 encoded contents.This embedding technique also may be used to embed a complete titlewithin an MP3-encoded file.

Alternatively, a title or title link may be embedded within a “userdefined” WXX frame within an MP3 encoded file. As described in the ID3v2specification:

“This frame is intended for URL [URL] links concerning the audio file ina similar way to the other ‘W’ frames. The frame body includes adescription of the string, represented as a terminated string, followedby the actual URL. The URL is always encoded with ISO-8859-1.”

[ISO-8859-1]. There may be more than one “WXX” frame in each tag, butonly one with the same description.

User defined . . . “WXX” Frame size $xx xx xx Text encoding $xxDescription <textstring> $00 (00) URL <textstring>

Other fields also may be suitable for embedding titles or links totitles. The above references provide examples of how to embed titles andlinks to titles advantageously within ID3 tags stored in MP3 files.

“In this frame any type of file can be encapsulated. After the header,‘Frame size’ and ‘Encoding’ follows ‘MIME type’ ‘[MIME] and Filename’for the encapsulated object, both represented as terminated stringsencoded with ISO 8859-1 [ISO-8859-1]. The filename is case sensitive.Then follows a content description as terminated string, encoded as‘Encoding.’ The last thing in the frame is the actual object. The firsttwo strings may be omitted, leaving only their terminations.”

MIME type is always an ISO-8859-1 text string. There may be more thanone “GEO” frame in each tag, but only one with the same contentdescriptor.

General encapsulated object “GEO” Frame size $xx xx xx Text encoding $xxMIME type <textstring> $00 Filename <textstring> $00 (00) Contentdescription <textstring> $00 (00) Encapsulated object <binary>

For example, a title itself may be stored as an encapsulated objectwithin a GEO frame. A title stored within an ID3v2 GEO frame may beidentified by the MIME type for automated processing by an application.

Alternatively, ID3v2 frames may reference external content as describedwithin the ID3v2 specification.

Similar mechanisms are provided in newer versions of the ID3 standard(e.g. ID3v4). The tag names have changed, but the usages of the frametypes remain the same. Other frame types in this specification such asthe “Commercial” and “Private data” frames may be used to encode titlesor references to titles as described above.

FIG. 8 depicts an MP3 tagged media format file with embedded content.8100 is the MP3 file itself, which contains multiple tags (8110, 8120,8130, and 8140). Each of these tags represents a different piece ofinformation regarding the file; for example, 8110 can represent the nameof the song, 8120 can represent the name of the artist, 8130 canrepresent the music itself, and 8140 can represent the title materialsthat allow the user to access the information in the other tags.

FIG. 9 depicts a digital image with embedded ad content. 9100 is theimage file, which can be in JPG, PNG, GIF or other similar format. 9110is an embedded actionable ad.

6.3.2.3 Embedding in Appendable/Insertable Formats: JFIF (JPEG)

As previously described, where extending a format or re-purposingexisting features are not options, appending or inserting data into theexisting format might be possible. The JFIF (JPEG) format, previouslydescribed, will be used as an example of how this can be accomplished.Similar methods can be used on other appendable/insertable formats, asthose having ordinary skill in the art will readily see.

As depicted in FIG. 10, a JFIF file includes a series of marked datablocks. The first is the Start Of Image segment (10100). This isfollowed by the JFIF-required APP0 “JFIF” segment (10200) and anyoptional APP0 “JFXX” segments (10300). These are followed by the imagedata and other segments (10400) and finally the End Of Image (EOI)segment (10500). Properly designed software will search for segmentmarkers by looking for the hexadecimal “FF” byte, followed by a knownmarker type specification byte, and process required segments, but willcease scanning at the EOI marker. This allows additional data, such astitle materials (10600) to be appended to the JFIF file withoutinterfering with the functioning of such properly designed pre-existingsoftware. Software which is title-aware can use the EOI marker bytes tolocate the start of the title materials data, making it a simple matterto extract them from the JFIF image file for processing.

6.3.2.4 Formats Capable of Multiple Embedding Methods

There are some formats which are designed in such a manner as to allowthem to fit more than one of the three embedding method categories. Forexample, the JFIF (JPEG) format, described above as an extensibleformat, also fits the re-purposable category, due to its having asegment type called “COM” (hexadecimal value “FE”), that is used toinclude arbitrary comments in the file. JPEG also fits theappendable/insertable category, due to the EOI marker being used todelimit the end of the JFIF image data and leaving open the possibilitythat additional data of arbitrary format might be appended to a JFIFfile without disrupting the functioning of software designed to workwith JFIF files, and allowing AV-aware software to locate suchadditional data easily. In some implementations, title materials may beembedded in a given file using more than one method, such as extendingthe format and appending data to the file. This can be done wheredifferent software implementations look for title materials in differentplaces, where different types of title materials need to be stored indifferent ways, for redundancy, or for any other purpose deemednecessary by those having skill in the art.

6.3.3 Embedding in Structured Text

There are a number of structured text data encoding formats in commonuse on the Internet today. These include, for example, XML, HTML, andXHTML. As with digital media, described previously, it is usuallypossible to extend these formats or re-purpose an existing feature so asto allow for the inclusion of title materials.

Structured formats based on XML, or substantially similar to it, areinherently extensible. XML uses tags to describe the nature of data inXML documents, and new tags may be created as needed without violatingthe structure of the document. In particular uses of XML there may becases where a tag used to specify title materials is already in use foranother purpose, however proper use of “namespaces” (an XML feature usedto prevent confusion when a particular tag is used for differentpurposes by different systems) can allow for the inclusion of tags forembedding title materials without interfering with existing XML schemasor processing software. Unaware software will not be disrupted byunrecognized tags. It will process them without being able to make useof the associated data other than, perhaps, to display it. Title-awaresoftware can use standard XML-parsing systems to process the XML fileand to extract the title materials from it as needed.

An example of an XML document without title materials can appear asfollows:

<message> <to>Bearer</to> <from>Advertizer</from> <heading>50% OffCoupon</heading> <body>Come to the store by Saturday to get a 50% offcoupon!</body> </message>

The same XML document, with embedded title materials can appear asfollows:

<message xmlns:title=“http://www.titles.com/XML”> <to>Bearer</to><from>Advertizer</from> <heading>50% Off Coupon</heading> <body>Come tothe store by Saturday to get a 50% off coupon!</body><title:materials>embedded, and possibly encoded, titlematerials</title:materials> </message>

HTML uses tags that look very much like XML tags, but in HTML the tagsare used to describe how the associated information is to be displayedor used, rather than what it is, and the available tags are defined bystandards and can not be created as needed by applications. There aresome tags in the HTML standard that can be used to extend thecapabilities of the language by re-purposing them. One example of a tagthat can be used for this purpose is the <object> tag, which is used forembedding objects into HTML pages. A possible <object> tag used tospecify title materials can appear similar to this:

<OBJECT DATA=“50coupon.ttl” TYPE=“binary/title” TITLE=“Half Off!”NAME=“COUPON” WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=150> <PARAM NAME=ISSUERVALUE=“http://advertiser.com/dcs”> <A HREF=“50coupon.jpg”>Coupon: HalfOff!</A> </OBJECT>

XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) is a specification thatdefines an XML document structure that is a superset of the HTML 4standard tag set. It is used for the same purposes as HTML, but has allof the extensible features of XML incorporated into it. An XHTMLdocument is an XML document, though some of the extensibility featuresof XML are restricted for conforming XHTML documents. As a superset ofHTML, the same methods of embedding and retrieving title materialsdescribed above for HTML can also be used with XHTML documents. As anXML document, an XHTML document can also have digital materials embeddedand retrieved using the methods described above for XML documents,though the result may not be strictly conforming to the XHTML standard.Properly written XHTML software should not be affected by this however,and should ignore unrecognized tags with the result that the XHTML pagedisplays and behaves as expected with non-title-aware software

6.3.4 Associating Titles with Images in HTML and XML

In other embodiments, titles are associated with images or other contentusing HTML-style linking in which a graphic is displayed to the user;and clicking on the graphic (or otherwise activating) causes the browserto follow a URL link or execute embedded content. In some embodiments,the URL link is to a piece of content that comprises a title. In otherembodiments, the URL link is to an anchor point within the HTML page,which may comprise an embedded title. In still other embodiments, thecontent is embedded as part of the HTML associated with the graphicimage being displayed for the user. Similar mechanisms may be used forXML-encodings of titles and associated items, such as RSS feeds or listsof materials such as gift wish lists or content catalogs.

In still other embodiments, titles are associated with specific content(or other titles) using a database or directory service. The associationmay be formed using a flat text file, the context that the URL or linkis provided within, an algorithm that calculates the title materialsrequired on the basis of the input URL, a database or directory servicequery, or other application-specific method that forms the associationand permits the association to be retrieved upon demand by anapplication requesting the association. Other linkage methods may beutilized as source information as alternatives to using URLs.

6.3.5 Titles Encoded in Content Streams

In yet other embodiments, title materials, including offers and genericoffers, are encoded in content and content delivery streams. Types ofthese streams include (but are not limited to) HTML, SGML, XML, IM,news, email, and RSS. Specialty-use lists such as wish lists or giftlists may be considered content streams for these purposes. Encodingwithin other types of content delivery stream is also envisioned. In afirst example, titles, offers, and generic offers may be encoded withinany stream that supports MIME type encoding mechanism for the content.The MIME type encoding may be used in conjunction with an intercepttechnology and an AV or title-aware component to process the title,offer, or generic offer. In a second example, titles, offers, andgeneric offers may be encoded using alternative encoding schemes such asXML to produce title-aware gift lists. In still other additionalembodiments, a link to a title, offer, or generic offer may be encodedwithin content or content delivery streams. In some of these additionalembodiments, a reference or pointer may be using a public reference suchas a URI. In other additional embodiments, the reference or pointer maybe an internal reference or pointer to a data structure, data element,or other storage element of a storage system.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the interceptand/or AV components may collect information about the executionlocation and environment where the title, offer, or generic offer islocated, and use this information in the processing of the title, offer,or generic offer.

6.3.6 Title Identification

In some embodiments, title materials embedded or encoded in a file orcontent stream are recognized by an AV or other title-aware applicationon the basis of file type, unique ID, content tag, content marker orsignature, referenced URL, MIME type, or other mechanism known to thoseskilled in the art.

In a first embodiment, title materials are stored in or referenced by atleast part of a file name. A portion of the file name may be used toidentify the content of the file as title materials, and may be used bythe operating system to identify the title materials. In a Windowsoperating system embodiment, a portion of the file name commonly used bythe operating system to identify file contents is the file suffix, e.g.the three letters after the last trailing period. In this example, afile name of mytitle.ttl may be identified as a title on the basis ofthe “TTL” file suffix. In some writings, the file suffix is called afile extension. Other file suffixes may be specified.

In a second embodiment, title materials may be identified using a uniqueidentifier value associated with the title materials. In someembodiments, the unique identifier may be a Microsoft-compatible GUID.In other embodiments, the unique identifier may be a DCE-compatibleUUID. The selection of the specific unique ID format will vary fromembodiment to embodiment. Title materials may be associated with oneunique ID, or may be associated with a plurality of unique IDs.

.In a third embodiment, title materials may be identified using one ormore content tags associated with or embedded within content. In someembodiments, a specific content tag is associated with title materials,such as in the descriptive HTML surrounding a title in a web page, or adescriptive tag within a specified file format (such as the MP3 fileformat, as described herein). Similarly, a content tag may be associatedwith title materials when the title materials are stored within orreferenced by an XML storage mechanism. The content tag may be storedseparately from the title materials, and may be stored using a differentstorage mechanism such as a database or directory service.

In a fourth embodiment, title materials may be identified using one ormore content markers or signatures associated with or embedded within apiece of content. When embedded within a piece of content, a contentmarker or signature may be identified on the basis of its value. Forexample, title materials may have a content marker of “NavioTitle”embedded within the first 100 bytes of the title materials. In someembodiments, the content marker or signature is associated with specifictitle materials, such as in the descriptive HTML surrounding titlematerials embedded in a web page. Similarly, a content marker orsignature may be associated with title materials when the titlematerial(s) are stored within or referenced by an XML storage mechanism.The content marker or signature may be stored separately from the titlematerials, and may be stored using a different storage mechanism such asa database or directory service. Other file types, such as JFIF (JPEG)and GIF, can allow similar functionalities as will be apparent to thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

In a fifth embodiment, title materials may be identified using some orall of a reference URL. In one example embodiment, the URL referencestitle materials by storage location. For example, an RSS stream mayreference a URL for title materials stored in a well-known publicstorage or wallet for storage of title materials. The applicationprocessing the RSS stream may have a list of well-known title materialstorage locations, and may use a URL that defines the location of titlematerials as an indicator that the referenced object is a title. In analternate embodiment, a title-aware application may make an associationbetween a URL and a title to which it should be associated. In thisembodiment, a URL may reference a specific piece of content (e.g. an MP3file, an image) and the association is made between the URL or portionof the URL and a specific title object. The association may beone-to-one, or many-to-one, or one-to-many, depending uponimplementation requirements. Thus, a single URL referencing externalcontent may be associated with a single title object. Alternatively, aplurality of URLs may be associated with a single title object. Furtheralternatives may include a single URL's being associated with aplurality of title materials. The association may be formed using a flattext file, the context that the URL or link is provided within, analgorithm that calculates the title object on the basis of the inputURL, a database, a directory service, or other application-specificmethod that forms the association and permits the association to beretrieved upon demand by an application requesting the association.Other linkage methods may be utilized as alternatives to using URLs.

In a sixth embodiment, title materials may be identified using a MIMEtype that describes the type of an embedded title object. MIME type maybe associated with one or more flavors of title object. The same ordifferent MIME type may be associated with each flavor of titlematerials. The association of MIME type and objects is made, in part,using OS or application provided facilities.

In a seventh embodiment, title materials may be identified using abinding-to-method invocation mechanism. In some embodiments, titlematerials may contain rights invocation instructions that may be bounddirectly to object dispatch or object broker mechanisms. The binding ofthese rights invocation instructions to an object dispatch or objectbroker mechanism may be used to identify title materials that is eitherspecified by the dispatch or broker mechanism or is used as a source forthe rights invocation instructions.

6.3.7 Invocation of Titles

In some embodiments, at least some of the rights specified within titlematerials are automatically invoked (e.g. the rights may be invoked) bytitle-aware applications whenever the application is invoked for atitle. There are several common mechanisms for associating content typeswith applications that can process them, e.g. associating titlematerials with title-aware processes.

In a first example, the association may be made on the basis of filesuffix/extension. In a Windows environment, this association is made bythe operating system on the basis of registry settings that associate afile suffix/extension with a particular application that should be usedto process a file of the specified file type. The user also may makethis association manually.

In a second example, the association may be made on the basis of MIMEtype. Various applications, including email, web browsers, etc. managethe mapping of MIME type to handling application. The association fortitle materials is made using implementation dependent mechanisms foreach application that handles MIME types.

In a third example, titles may be invoked directly from other titles ortitle fragments. Title fragments may be named within these titlematerials. A title aware application or service may follow these linksand invoke the subsidiary title materials.

In a fourth example, titles may be invoked when rights specificationscontained therein are associated with method invocation methods ofexternal object dispatch or object broker components. In one embodimentof this example, a title right may be associated with a specific COM orDCOM method invocation and be called by the COM/DCOM object dispatcherwhenever a specific COM/DCOM method is invoked. Alternative objectbrokers such as CORBA, DCE, or Java may be used in a similar manner.

6.3.8 Recognition of Title-Embedded Content

In other embodiments, titles are recognized by title-aware applications,for example AV provided by Navio Systems Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Inone set of embodiments, and as described in U.S. Patent Publication Nos.US 2007-0157320 A1 and US 2005-0234860 A1, the entire disclosures ofboth of which are incorporated herein by reference, the AV is able torecognize titles when they are encountered from content type, file type,and other extrinsic attributes of the title. When working withtitle-embedded content, the AV is similarly able to recognizetitle-enabled content by scanning the content for a title. If found, theAV would recognize the title enabled content and process it inaccordance with the title specifications.

For example, if an MP3 file is encoded with ID3v2 tags that comprise alink to a title or a title itself, an AV or title-enabled music playerapplication may recognize a link encoded within a “WXX” record.Alternatively, the title-enabled application may recognize the titleitself encoded within a “GEO” frame based upon the title structure orMIME type, and again take title-defined actions.

6.3.9 Title Aware Application Recognition of Title-Embedded Content

Other title-aware applications may recognize title embedded streams andcontent using techniques described elsewhere in this document.

6.4 Title (and Offer) Distribution Methods Using Embedded TitleMaterials

In some aspects, titles and title materials, including title-basedoffers as described herein are distributed using any means effective todistribute content. Thus, these title materials, including title-basedoffers, may be placed anywhere an image, piece of music, movie,document, or other content. In some embodiments, title materials,including title-based offers, may be distributed in other contentstructures, such as RSS feeds, HTML pages, etc. Depending upon theformat and structure of the title materials used, the title materialsmay be immediately executed from its display location.

In the case of an RSS feed, title materials may be embedded, either as areference or directly as content, as an element in an RSS feed. Suchembedding permits readers of the RSS feed to recognize and process thetitle materials as they read their RSS feed. In a first embodiment, theuser clicks on a link embedded in the RSS feed, which in turn executes aspecific right within specific title materials. In some cases, thesetitle materials may comprise one or more rights, and the effect ofprocessing the title materials by selecting them in an RSS feed is toexecute one or more rights specified in the title materials. In someembodiments, these title materials comprise one or more rights. In otherembodiments, the title materials comprise a link to title materials.

In some processing environments, the link or embedded title isrecognized by a title aware application.

7 BUSINESS MODEL EXAMPLES

7.1 Actionable Ad (aka Ad Content as an Offer Title)

In still another aspect, the present invention permits a user to improvead or click-thru business models with an “ad as an offer.” Similarly,the present invention supports a new business model where content itselfcomprises the rights-enabled title object. Wherever an existing systemhas an ad or ad reference, the present invention can associate the ad orad reference with title materials or offer (or generic offer) andexecute the associated title object as necessary to fulfill the offer.Alternatively, the present invention permits the ad content (orapplication content) to comprise both content and title object, and theappropriate portions of the title object are invoked as necessary tofacilitate use of the content.

An aspect of the invention permits an application to complete atransaction on the basis of title materials embedded or encoded withincontent in the background without a necessary requirement of a userbecoming involved in the transaction. Embodiments of the presentinvention permit seamless association of ads and title materials (e.g.title or offer objects), and the subsequent invocation of the title oroffer object on behalf of the user.

In one embodiment, the described technologies permit a title-awareapplication to match specific ads with titles on the basis of their URLor other reference materials. Thus, a title-aware application such as anAV may observe ads being presented to the user from an external adserver (e.g., Ad-Space) and may use the ad's URL as a tag to reference aparticular title object as described above. The AV or other title-awareapplication may use the known association to provide efficient (e.g.,one-click) fulfillment of the ad by executing the title objectassociated with the ad image (or ad image's URL). In an alternateembodiment, the AV may recognize an embedded title object (or link totitle materials) within the ad itself, and provide fulfillment of the adby executing the title embedded within it.

It will be noted that a trusted application such as an AV can operate asa trusted agent, and manage the payout of affiliate payments to sitepublishers, content providers, ad providers, and other interestedparties. A trusted agent such as the AV also permits the aggregation ofa plurality of purchased materials and the hiding of the disparatepurchase sites/transactions from the user unless they specificallydesire the information. The present invention further may be usedadvantageously to improve the click-through completion rates of ad-basedmodels by simplifying a purchase or other transaction. The user needonly click on the ad image for the transaction to be initiated, and themyriad of transactions that occur “under the hood” are hidden from theuser, while still being performed in a trusted manner.

In an alternate embodiment, the described technologies permit atitle-aware content use application to recognize embedded titlematerials and complete any necessary transactions to acquire rights forthe content prior to, during, or subsequent to the use of the content.Thus, a title-aware content use application may observe content beingused by the application and make an association with a particular titleobject as described above. The title-aware content use application mayuse the association to determine the title object to use, and providefulfillment to obtain the necessary rights to use the content. In analternate embodiment, the content being used may contain embedded titlematerials (or links to title object). The fulfillment may be performedbefore, concurrent with, or after the content itself is used. In anexample embodiment, the title-aware content use application is an MP3player, which is processing a set of MP3 files. In this exampleembodiment, the MP3 files being played are not currently licensed by theuser for play. In a first use, the MP3 file is associated with titlematerials that specifies how rights may be obtained using one of theassociation methods described above. In this example, the association ismade based upon the contents of one or more MP3 ID3v2 tags stored withinthe MP3 file that contains an embedded title object. The MP3 playerrecognizes the title object, and the title object is used to obtain thenecessary rights/licenses to play the MP3 file without requiringintervention by the user. The right and/or licenses may be alreadypresent, may be stored on a server, or may be generated as required topermit the user to access the content.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating the process of redeeming a titleembedded in an ad with the assistance of the AV (or helper) application.In 11110, the embedded title is presented to the user as an ad. When theuser clicks on the ad (11120), the AV/helper application recognizes thetitle embedded in the media (11130), extracts the title (11140), andmakes the title available to the user (11150). Once the title is madeavailable to the user, normal title processing operations, such aspurchasing, redeeming one or more rights, etc. is available to the user.

It should be noted that such processing operations may be conductedusing and in accordance with the title technologies and title processingarchitectures described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/742,253and Ser. No. 10/439,629, and U.S. Patent Publications No. US2007-0157320 A1 and No. US 2005-0234860 A1 incorporated herein byreference above. However, it should also be noted that these are merelyexamples of technologies and architectures which are suitable forimplementing embodiments of the invention, and that a wide variety oftechnologies and architectures which enable and/or employ digital bearerinstruments may be employed to implement embodiments of the presentinvention.

7.2 Actionable Feeds (aka Title Offer Feed)

In another embodiment of the invention, title materials, includingtitles, offers, generic offers, vouchers, and other forms and parts oftitles may be distributed using feed-like “push” mechanisms. Unlike“pull” mechanisms, where the user must go to a specific page or site toview an offer from a merchant, “push” mechanisms permit title materialsto be sent to users. These push mechanisms are collectively calledfeeds. This especially is advantageous when the materials provided aspart of the feed comprise title materials. In a more particularembodiment, the materials provided as part of the feed comprise one ormore rights. In another particular embodiment, the materials provided aspart of the feed comprise a content embedded title object.

In a more specific embodiment, title materials are selected for pushingto a feed from a list of title materials characterized by one or more ofthe following:

-   -   Possessed by a user.    -   As the result of a search against a catalog or database.    -   Present in a catalog or database.    -   Upon the basis of a change to a catalog or database element.    -   As published in another feed.    -   As a result of matching to a keyword, URL, or other structure,        as described above.    -   Heuristically selected based upon previous purchasing or        browsing patterns (generally historical activities).    -   Sent to the user as a gift or award.    -   Based upon instructions from a consumer or site operator.

Various methods of providing feeds may be provided in variousembodiments of the present invention. The feeds may include such diversemechanisms as e-mail, RSS, Instant Messaging, and publishing to P2Pnetworks. Users may execute one or more rights contained within titlematerials contained within a feed by either clicking on the rights (ifembedded and the user has a title aware browser, or if the link isexposed by the user's feed software), by using the content (if the userhas a title-aware content player), or by clicking on a button associatedwith the right (if using an AV).

Note that right feeds effectively disassociate specific title materialsor title object fragments from their original published locations (orvenues) while retaining the association between the original venue andthe title materials. This feature of offer feeds permits title materialsto be copied from one venue to another, and displayed on a second venuewhile referencing the original venue. One or more disparate stubscomprising title fragments (or offer fragments) may be associated witheach title, personalizing the relocated title for its new venue whileretaining the original association. Similar techniques can be used topermit users to save one or more title materials provided as part of aright feed, an actionable ad, or otherwise embedded in a piece ofdigital media for later use while retaining its history and sourcingmaterials.

It should be noted that embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented using any of a wide variety of computing systems andplatforms and in any network environment in which presenting digitalmedia and facilitating related transactions using embedded titlematerials are useful functionalities. For example and as illustrated inFIG. 12, implementations are contemplated in which the digital mediahaving embedded title materials are presented using interfaces onpersonal computers 12002, media computing platforms 12003 (e.g., gamingplatforms, or cable and satellite set top boxes), handheld computingdevices (e.g., PDAs) 12004, cell phones 12006, or any other type ofcommunication platform. The logic (e.g., as embodied in computer code orinstructions) which controls the various functionalities associated withpresentation of the digital media having embedded title materials may beresident on such devices, e.g., as part of a browser or otherapplication, or be served up from a remote site, e.g., in a Web page.The embedding of title materials in digital media, and the facilitationof transactions using such embedded title materials (e.g., using adigital commerce system or DCS as developed by Navio Systems Inc.) maybe accomplished using one or more platforms (represented by server 12008and data store 12010) remote from end user devices, either separately orin conjunction with such end user devices. The invention may also bepracticed in a wide variety of network environments (represented bynetwork 12012), e.g., TCP/IP-based networks, telecommunicationsnetworks, wireless networks, cable networks, etc.

In addition, the computer program instructions with which embodiments ofthe invention are implemented may be stored in any type ofcomputer-readable media, and may be executed according to a variety ofcomputing models including a client/server model, a peer-to-peer model,on a stand-alone computing device, or according to a distributedcomputing model in which various of the functionalities described hereinmay be effected or employed at different locations.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that changes in the form and details of thedisclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention. In addition, although various advantages,aspects, and objects of the present invention have been discussed hereinwith reference to various embodiments, it will be understood that thescope of the invention should not be limited by reference to suchadvantages, aspects, and objects. Rather, the scope of the inventionshould be determined with reference to the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for facilitatingaccess to digital content in a network using one or more computingdevices, comprising: embedding, by at least one of the one or morecomputing devices, a portion of a first digital bearer instrument or areference to the first digital bearer instrument in a first digitalmedia object, the first digital media object having a media format andrepresenting first digital content, the first digital bearer instrumentrepresenting a right relating to the first digital content, the portionof the first digital bearer instrument or the reference to the firstdigital bearer instrument being embedded in the first digital mediaobject such that playback of the first digital content by media playersnot configured to recognize or process the portion of the first digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the first digital bearerinstrument is not inhibited, the portion of the first digital bearerinstrument or the reference to the first digital bearer instrument alsobeing embedded in the first digital media object such that media playersconfigured to recognize and process the portion of the first digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the first digital bearerinstrument can recognize and process the portion of the first digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the first digital bearerinstrument; embedding, by at least one of the one or more computingdevices, a portion of a second digital bearer instrument or a referenceto the second digital bearer instrument in a second digital mediaobject, the second digital media object having the media format andrepresenting second digital content, the second digital bearerinstrument representing a right relating to the second digital content,the portion of the second digital bearer instrument or the reference tothe second digital bearer instrument being embedded in the seconddigital media object such that playback of the second digital content bymedia players not configured to recognize or process the portion of thesecond digital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digitalbearer instrument is not inhibited, the portion of the second digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument also being embedded in the second digital media object suchthat media players configured to recognize and process the portion ofthe second digital bearer instrument or the reference to the seconddigital bearer instrument can recognize and process the portion of thesecond digital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digitalbearer instrument; transmitting, by at least one of the one or morecomputing devices via the network, the first digital media object to afirst media player operating on a first client device, the first mediaplayer being configured to recognize and process the media format, thefirst media player not being configured to recognize or process theportion of the first digital bearer instrument or the reference to thefirst digital bearer instrument; receiving, by at least one of the oneor more computing devices via the network, a notification from the firstclient device that the first digital content was downloaded or streamedby the first media player of the first client device; transmitting, byat least one of the one or more computing devices via the network, thesecond digital media object to a second media player operating on asecond client device, the second media player being configured torecognize and process the media format, the second media player alsobeing configured to recognize and process the portion of the seconddigital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument; receiving, by at least one of the one or more computingdevices via the network, at least one notification from the secondclient device, the at least one notification from the second clientdevice representing that the second digital content was downloaded orstreamed by the second media player, the at least one notification fromthe second client device also representing that an automatic action wastaken by the second media player based on processing of the portion ofthe second digital bearer instrument or the reference to the seconddigital bearer instrument; retrieving, by at least one of the one ormore computing devices, the second digital bearer instrument in responseto the at least one notification from the second client device; andredeeming, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, theright relating to the second digital content by processing the seconddigital bearer instrument.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mediaformat comprises a text format, an audio format, a video format, animage format, or an animation format.
 3. The method of claim 1 whereinthe media format is extensible, and wherein the portion of the seconddigital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument is embedded in an extension to the second digital mediaobject.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the media format includes afeature unrelated to the portion of the second digital bearer instrumentor the reference to the second digital bearer instrument, and whereinthe portion of the second digital bearer instrument or the reference tothe second digital bearer instrument is embedded in the second digitalmedia object using the feature.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein themedia format defines an end of a file, and wherein the portion of thesecond digital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digitalbearer instrument is appended to the end of the file of the seconddigital media object.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least onenotification from the second client device corresponds to an interactionwith a user interface object presented on a display of the second clientdevice, presentation of the user interface object resulting from theprocessing of the portion of the second digital bearer instrument or thereference to the second digital bearer instrument by the second mediaplayer.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the right relating to thesecond digital content may be redeemed multiple times, the methodfurther comprising facilitating storage of the second digital mediaobject for later redemption of the right relating to the second digitalcontent.
 8. A system for facilitating access to digital content in anetwork, comprising: memory; and one or more processors configured,using the memory, to: embed, by at least one of the one or moreprocessors, a portion of a first digital bearer instrument or areference to the first digital bearer instrument in a first digitalmedia object, the first digital media object having a media format andrepresenting first digital content, the first digital bearer instrumentrepresenting a right relating to the first digital content, the portionof the first digital bearer instrument or the reference to the firstdigital bearer instrument being embedded in the first digital mediaobject such that playback of the first digital content by media playersnot configured to recognize or process the portion of the first digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the first digital bearerinstrument is not inhibited, the portion of the first digital bearerinstrument or the reference to the first digital bearer instrument alsobeing embedded in the first digital media object such that media playersconfigured to recognize and process the portion of the first digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the first digital bearerinstrument can recognize and process the portion of the first digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the first digital bearerinstrument; embed, by at least one of the one or more processors, aportion of a second digital bearer instrument or a reference to thesecond digital bearer instrument in a second digital media object, thesecond digital media object having the media format and representingsecond digital content, the second digital bearer instrumentrepresenting a right relating to the second digital content, the portionof the second digital bearer instrument or the reference to the seconddigital bearer instrument being embedded in the second digital mediaobject such that playback of the second digital content by media playersnot configured to recognize or process the portion of the second digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument is not inhibited, the portion of the second digital bearerinstrument or the reference to the second digital bearer instrument alsobeing embedded in the second digital media object such that mediaplayers configured to recognize and process the portion of the seconddigital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument can recognize and process the portion of the second digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument; transmit, by at least one of the one or more processors viathe network, the first digital media object to a first media playeroperating on a first client device, the first media player beingconfigured to recognize and process the media format, the first mediaplayer not being configured to recognize or process the portion of thefirst digital bearer instrument or the reference to the first digitalbearer instrument; receive, by at least one of the one or moreprocessors via the network, a notification from the first client devicethat the first digital content was downloaded or streamed by the firstmedia player of the first client device; transmit, by at least one ofthe one or more processors via the network, the second digital mediaobject to a second media player operating on a second client device, thesecond media player being configured to recognize and process the mediaformat, the second media player also being configured to recognize andprocess the portion of the second digital bearer instrument or thereference to the second digital bearer instrument; receive, by at leastone of the one or more processors via the network, at least onenotification from the second client device, the at least onenotification from the second client device representing that the seconddigital content was downloaded or streamed by the second media player,the at least one notification from the second client device alsorepresenting that an automatic action was taken by the second mediaplayer based on processing of the portion of the second digital bearerinstrument or the reference to the second digital bearer instrument;retrieving, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, thesecond digital bearer instrument in response to the at least onenotification from the second client device; and redeem, by at least oneof the one or more processors, the right relating to the second digitalcontent by processing the second digital bearer instrument.
 9. Thesystem of claim 8 wherein the media format comprises a text format, anaudio format, a video format, an image format, or an animation format.10. The system of claim 8 wherein the media format is extensible, andwherein the portion of the second digital bearer instrument or thereference to the second digital bearer instrument is embedded in anextension to the second digital media object.
 11. The system of claim 8wherein the media format includes a feature unrelated to the portion ofthe second digital bearer instrument or the reference to the seconddigital bearer instrument, and wherein the portion of the second digitalbearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument is embedded in the second digital media object using thefeature.
 12. The system of claim 8 wherein the media format defines anend of a file, and wherein the portion of the second digital bearerinstrument or the reference to the second digital bearer instrument isappended to the end of the file of the second media digital object. 13.The system of claim 8 wherein the at least one notification from thesecond client device corresponds to an interaction with a user interfaceobject presented on a display of the second client device, presentationof the user interface object resulting from the processing of theportion of the second digital bearer instrument or the reference to thesecond digital bearer instrument by the second media player.
 14. Thesystem of claim 8 wherein the right relating to the second digitalcontent may be redeemed multiple times, and wherein the one or moreprocessors are further configured to facilitate storage of the seconddigital media object for later redemption of the right relating to thesecond digital content.
 15. A computer program product for facilitatingaccess to digital content in a network, the computer program productcomprising one or more computer-readable media having computer programinstructions stored therein, the computer program instructions beingconfigured such that, when executed by one or more computing devices,the computer program instructions cause the one or more computingdevices to: embed, by at least one of the one or more computing devices,a portion of a first digital bearer instrument or a reference to thefirst digital bearer instrument in a first digital media object, thefirst digital media object having a media format and representing firstdigital content, the first digital bearer instrument representing aright relating to the first digital content, the portion of the firstdigital bearer instrument or the reference to the first digital bearerinstrument being embedded in the first digital media object such thatplayback of the first digital content by media players not configured torecognize or process the portion of the first digital bearer instrumentor the reference to the first digital bearer instrument is notinhibited, the portion of the first digital bearer instrument or thereference to the first digital bearer instrument also being embedded inthe first digital media object such that media players configured torecognize and process the portion of the first digital bearer instrumentor the reference to the first digital bearer instrument can recognizeand process the portion of the first digital bearer instrument or thereference to the first digital bearer instrument; embed, by at least oneof the one or more computing devices, a portion of a second digitalbearer instrument or a reference to the second digital bearer instrumentin a second digital media object, the second digital media object havingthe media format and representing second digital content, the seconddigital bearer instrument representing a right relating to the seconddigital content, the portion of the second digital bearer instrument orthe reference to the second digital bearer instrument being embedded inthe second digital media object such that playback of the second digitalcontent by media players not configured to recognize or process theportion of the second digital bearer instrument or the reference to thesecond digital bearer instrument is not inhibited, the portion of thesecond digital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digitalbearer instrument also being embedded in the second digital media objectsuch that media players configured to recognize and process the portionof the second digital bearer instrument or the reference to the seconddigital bearer instrument can recognize and process the portion of thesecond digital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digitalbearer instrument; transmit, by at least one of the one or morecomputing devices via the network, the first digital media object to afirst media player operating on a first client device, the first mediaplayer being configured to recognize and process the media format, thefirst media player not being configured to recognize or process theportion of the first digital bearer instrument or the reference to thefirst digital bearer instrument; receive, by at least one of the one ormore computing devices via the network, a notification from the firstclient device that the first digital content was downloaded or streamedby the first media player of the first client device; transmit, by atleast one of the one or more computing devices via the network, thesecond digital media object to a second media player operating on asecond client device, the second media player being configured torecognize and process the media format, the second media player alsobeing configured to recognize and process the portion of the seconddigital bearer instrument or the reference to the second digital bearerinstrument; receive, by at least one of the one or more computingdevices via the network, at least one notification from the secondclient device, the at least one notification from the second clientdevice representing that the second digital content was downloaded orstreamed by the second media player, the at least one notification fromthe second client device also representing that an automatic action wastaken by the second media player based on processing of the portion ofthe second digital bearer instrument or the reference to the seconddigital bearer instrument; retrieve, by at least one of the one or morecomputing devices via the network, the second digital bearer instrumentin response to the at least one notification from the second clientdevice; and redeem, by at least one of the one or more computingdevices, the right relating to the second digital content by processingthe second digital bearer instrument.